Steven Spooner Assistant Professor of Piano
Described as "dazzling" (Washington Post), critics have hailed the
powerful performances of pianist Steven Spooner and noted that the
"American had everything: polished technique, musical intelligence,
innate sensitivity, and a personality that reaches across the keyboard."
Steven is a prizewinner at each of the seven international piano
competitions he has entered and top prize winner at both the Hilton Head
International Piano Competition and the Artlivre Chopin/Liszt
International Piano Competition in Sao Paulo. He was awarded First Prize
and recipient of the Niekamp Career Grant as most outstanding pianist in
French music at the Paris Conservatory. Steven has performed solo
recitals at prestigious venues such as the Salle Cortot in Paris,
Holland's Vredenburg Centre, Budapest's Great Hall of the Liszt Academy,
and numerous halls across Europe, Latin America, South America, and the
United States. Dr. Spooner's orchestral engagements include recent
performances with the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin during their recent tour
of North America. He made his Carnegie Hall recital debut in a tour
sponsored by the Hungarian Embassy and this season maintains a busy
schedule of performances in the US and abroad in New York City, Sao
Paulo, St. Petersburg, Budapest, Canada, Italy, and Korea.
Dr. Spooner has seen the release of ten solo and chamber recordings on EMR Classics, Everythingmusic and IU recording labels and has studied at Loyola University, Paris Conservatory, Moscow and Tbilisi Conservatories in the former Soviet Union, and earned his doctorate at Indiana University, Bloomington. He has served as guest artist-in-residence at Paris Conservatory Summer Sessions and has been appointed to the Artist Faculty of the Amalfi Coast Music Festival in Italy and the International Institute for Young Musicians. Steven currently serves on the piano faculty at the University of Kansas and specializes in workshops and lectures on a variety of performance and pedagogical topics. A dedicated and caring teacher, Steven's students have already been named winners of several top prizes at national and international piano competitions. Steven in a Steinway Artist.
REVIEWS
THE WASHINGTON POST, Review of the American Liszt Society National Festival. 5/2008 "At the same time, there was already plenty to listen to -- and watch -- during a performance Saturday at Catholic University's Hartke Theatre of the composer's transcription of Schubert's "Erlkoenig." Anything added to Steven Spooner's dazzling, blurry-handed sweeps of the entire piano would have been dizzying."
THE BRESLAU NEWS, 10/5/2002 "The competition (The International Liszt Competition) on Thursday afternoon was ruled by the very professional, serious, and beautiful performance of Steven Spooner from the U.S.A. His playing was thought through to the finest detail from the beginning to its perfect conclusion. His Transcendental Etudes, Wilde Jagd and Harmonies du Soir were virtuosic and emotionally stirring. The Schubert Serenade in Liszt's transcription was both lyrical and clearly conceived."
SAVANNAH TIMES, Review of Hilton Head International Piano Competition winner's recital. 10/25/1996 "American Steven Spooner had everything: polished technique, musical intelligence, innate sensitivity, and a personality that reaches across the keyboard. Spooner's Scarlatti (Dominico, Sonatas K. 213 and 184) were perfectly sketched pieces of understatement highlighting the 26-year-old's clarity, sensitivity and simplicity of statement. But Spooner has plenty of what Maestro Claudio Abbado calls the Big Utterance. Spooner used pedal technique rather than force to coax immense sound, achieving dense volume from the middle voice, and a growling resonance in the low voice. Accuracy was commendable throughout."
THE HERALD TIMES, Review of all Liszt concert. 11/13/2002 "Spooner, victor in the Liszt Competition in Russia, took on music of what was referred to as the 'virtuoso Liszt,' music of the composer as a young man...There were flourishes galore and chordal clusters and runs and resounding climaxes...One heard phenomenally agile pianism along with temperamentally sensitive musicianship."
THE HERALD TIMES, Review of duo concert with violinist Leor Maltinski. 8/6/2002 "Following a break, Maltinski turned to Beethoven and Franck. The Beethoven A Minor Sonata for Violin and Piano, Opus 23, brought forth an appropriate energy mixed with reserve. From both the violinist and pianist Steven Spooner one heard a warmth of touch and temperament that gave the sonata just the right adornment. Here was well-executed Beethoven." "The Franck Sonata in A Major sounded just as embracing Sunday as it did Friday. What a delicious musical confection it is, and what a test for both instrumentalists. Maltinski's interpretation was a winning one, generous in floating tones as well as flaming passage work, where called for. In total, his reading - beautifully complemented by Spooner - left a dreamy impression, almost other worldly in nature."
CAROLINA MORNING NEWS, Review of Hilton Head International Piano Competition winner's recital. 10/1996 "Louisiana-born Steven Spooner, 26, rounded out the program with enchanting interpretations of two Sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti--some of the most interesting pianistic characterizations of these harpsichord compositions one is apt to encounter... enchanting."
EMILE NAOUMOFF, concert pianist, Sony recording artist, composer, Associate Prof. Indiana University "It is an honor and almost a duty for me to be able to fully recommend Steven Spooner. He is among more than the top 1% of his generation as an auspicious pianist, musician, scholar. His stage presence is striking, his ear and his fingers have an amazing complicity. He has the enlighted touch of a Lipatti, the power of a Richter, both mental and physical, the articulation of Michelangeli...he becomes 'one' with the instrument, carving the sounds into meaningful rests as well. He is an inspiration to all of us around him."
VIKTOR MERZHANOV, concert pianist, Professor, Moscow Conservatory, from letter of recommendation, 2002. "His performance possesses the deep understanding of the contents of Liszt's works, organic and instinctive feeling of form and outstanding virtuosity. His programs for the first and second rounds of the competition were very demanding, requiring not only technical perfection but the ability to create colorful artistic images. The crystal-clear enunciation of each tone and the feeling of phrasal climaxes and structure are also worth mentioning. All of the above made Mr. Spooner's playing very memorable. His pianistic art must attract more attention from concert organizers around the world."